Take That's well publicised Progress Live Tour, designed by Es Devlin and Kim Gavin, spent two months on the road with no less than 10 Robert Juliat Lancelot followspots. Specified by lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe, the 4kW HTI Lancelots were chosen for their ability to handle the size of the stadiums and the long throw distances involved.
Two more Lancelots from the Neg Earth stock accompanied George Michael's Symphonica: The Orchestral Tour on 45 shows across 35 European cities before Michael's severe illness forced the cancellation of this year's remaining dates. Designed by Bas Halpin and Ken Watt, the tour included songs from George Michael's 30-year career, re-worked and re-arranged for the orchestra.
"The Lancelots have worked hard all year with no issues reported," says Neg Earth. "The feedback from the crews is that they prefer Lancelots to other followspots as their design makes them both easier to set up and to operate. This is very important at large venues and stadiums where manpower is concentrated in the main arena, leaving fewer technicians to transport followspots over considerable distances and set them up at the far reaches of the arenas. Lancelots can be transported and rigged by fewer technicians, saving both time and money. The crews are definitely encouraging us to stick with the Robert Juliats."
Neg Earth also supplied some of the most compact Robert Juliat followspots, namely RJ 1800W MSR Flo, to one of the largest European tours. Four of these 13° - 24° short-throw followspots are being used as truss and gantry spots on George Reeves Productions', Batman Live stadium tour.
Designed by Es Devlin, with lighting once more by Patrick Woodroffe, Batman Live is billed as an action-packed live show incorporating impressive stunts, pyrotechnics, illusions and video screen sequences. The show, which has been on tour since the summer, will continue across Europe for a further year before opening in America in summer 2012.
Finally, four DMX-operated, RJ 1800W MSR Flo spots with custom colour scrollers were specified by Muse's stage and visual designer, Oli Metcalfe, as the band celebrated 10 years since the release of their classic album, Origin of Symmetry, with a monster tour.
Metcalfe rigged the Flo spots on Thomas 360° swivel chairs and positioned them around the stage and as front truss spots for the worldwide tour, which culminated in a double date at the Reading & Leeds Festivals in August.
"I chose the motorised Robert Juliat Flo units because lighting remains the key aspect of Muse's live performance," says Metcalfe. "The Flo's DMX operation enabled me to write all spot cues and colour calls into the lighting programming, making cueing possible that could never be called over a traditional intercom ring. It also gave me global control of intensity so the spots could be cued whenever needed, in addition to the main cueing."
(Jim Evans)
